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The Maquis Part 2
' |image= |series= |production=40512-441 |producer(s)= |story= Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, and Ira Steven Behr |script= Ira Steven Behr |director= Corey Allen |imdbref=tt0708630 |guests=Tony Plana as Amaros, John Schuck as Legate Parn, Natalija Nogulich as Admiral Alynna Nechayev, Bertila Damas as Sakonna, Michael Bell as Drofo Awa. Amanda Carlin Amanda Carlin as Kobb, Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat |previous_production=The Maquis Part 1 |next_production=The Wire |episode=DS9 S02E21 |airdate=1 May 1994 |previous_release=(DS9) The Maquis Part 1 (Overall) Firstborn |next_release=(DS9) The Wire (Overall) Bloodlines |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2370) |previous_story= Bloodlines The Maquis Part 1 |next_story= Emergence Firstborn }} In the Maquis =Summary= Previously When a Cardassian transport explodes as it leaves Deep Space Nine, Lieutenant Commander Calvin Hudson, Federation attaché to the new demilitarized zone along the Cardassian border, and an old friend of both Commander Sisko and Dax, is sent to advise and assist Sisko’s investigation. Hudson confides in Sisko his dissatisfaction with his assignment; he believes Starfleet abandoned the colonists, and that their trust in the Cardassians to honor the treaty is naive. Following a breakdown of relations between Federation and Cardassian colonies in the DMZ, and a Vulcan woman’s attempt to acquire weapons, a group calling itself The Maquis abducts Gul Dukat. Sisko, Major Kira, and Dr. Bashir track the kidnappers to a planet in an area known as the Badlands, where they are captured by armed Maquis members, with Hudson revealing himself as their leader. Conclusion Calvin Hudson - now a member of the Maquis - tells Sisko that he believes the Cardassian Central Command is supplying their colonists inside the demilitarized zone with weapons. Since Starfleet refuses to violate the recent peace treaty with Cardassia by doing the same, the Maquis have kidnapped Dukat to learn more about the weapons shipments. They intend to stop them - even though Dukat previously swore to Sisko he knew nothing of them. Then Legate Parn - a high-ranking official in Central Command - pays an unexpected visit to DS9. He claims Dukat was responsible for the shipments. The legate also says the shipments have been stopped, and the Maquis are free to do with Dukat as they like. Sisko quickly concludes that both Dukat and Hudson were telling the truth. After locating and rescuing Dukat, Sisko relates his conversation with Parn. Painfully aware that his standing with Central Command has slipped, Dukat makes a deal with Sisko. He will help Sisko prove that Central Command is supplying the weapons if Sisko will stop the Maquis. Sisko agrees, and in short order the pair catch a Xepolite vessel loaded with weapons bound for the DMZ. In exchange, Sisko heads off an attack by the Maquis on a suspected Cardassian weapons depot. Over Dukat's objections, Sisko allows Hudson to escape. Ultimately, Sisko wonders if he has prevented a war or merely delayed the inevitable. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # In the opening discussion between Sisko and Hudson, the renegade commander proclaims that a treaty is just a "piece of paper." I guess these Maquis guys really are out there on the edge of the frontier. When was the last time you saw a piece of paper on DS9? (Then again, maybe it's just one of those expressions that refuses to die.) The Maquis may be traditionalists # It is interesting that Legate Parn would come all the way to DS9 to talk with Sisko for fewer than five minutes, that Sisko would send Kira to greet him at the airlock. (A Starfleet officer would seem more sensible. Then again, perhaps Sisko meant it as an insult.), and that Legate Parn would board a Bajoran station without at least a couple of bodyguards. All three things could be part of a trust building initiative. #There's a great exchange between Quark and a Vulcan female named Sakonna in this episode as both in- habit a jail cell. Quark explains why peace is cheap to acquire at that particular moment. It's very well written, but it raises a question: Why is Quark working so hard for peace? Yes, Rule of Acquisition 35 is "Peace is good for business." But don't forget Rule of Acquisition 34: "War is good for business." Especially for a Ferengi like Quark who can arrange weapons sales. Or is this part of his parole requirements? Quark is hedging his bets! Besides, a lasting peace provides a more stable environment for business. # Space is big. Really big. Really inconveniently big when it comes to shooting a science fiction series. At the end of this episode Sisko determines to take three runabouts and stop two Maquis ships from attacking a Cardassian colony. The establishing shot of the runabouts shows them clustered together, hanging in space. Yes, remember that they've got sensor probes scattered around the system. And yes, maybe they could split off and intercept Hudson and his friends, though the runabouts look like chickens huddling for warmth. What I can’t figure out is Hudson and friends. The two Maquis ships fly right up to the runabouts before turning. Then Hudson seems frustrated that Sisko has locked a tractor beam on his ship. Well, maybe if you hadn't flown into tractor beam range they wouldn't have been able to do that! Hudson could be testing the nerve of Sisko and the others. # I wonder how Dukat fared after this episode. Central Command had already decided to convict him for the sale of weapons to the Cardassian colonies in the DMZ. Then he went out and embarrassed them by exposing Central Command as the real source of the weapons sales. Somehow I don't think that helped his standing. Dukat is more than capable of taking care of himself! # At the end of this episode Sisko tells Kira that Starfleet Command has congratulated him. She says he deserves it - he prevented a war. Sisko isn't certain of that at all. He wonders if he just delayed the inevitable. If it's any consolation, Commander, let me give you my take on this deal: You only delayed the inevitable. Granted, it might have helped if you would have captured Hudson instead of letting him get away. But setting that aside, the real problem isn't you. The real problem is the dingleweed diplomats who negotiated this agreement in the first place and didn't have the guts to fix this problem before they signed the stupid treaty! If it's really the best they could do, then tell those colonists in the DMZ that they are on their own and they are no longer Federation citizens. Period. That could allow the Cardassians to claim the moral high ground, by accusing the Federation of abandoning it’s citizens. Equipment Oddities # A bit of history will expose this equipment oddity. In the previous episode, the Maquis kidnap Dukat. The crew on the station determine that only two ships departed the station during the appointed time. One went through the wormhole. The other didn't. Sisko guesses that the one that didn't go through the wormhole is the one that had Dukat. O'Brien then locates the ship's warp signature and gives Sisko the bearing of departure for the vessel. To locate the ship, Sisko then has O'Brien send out a general alert that in- cludes the warp signature of the ship, hoping someone will spot the craft and help determine its destination. On the way to the DMZ, Sisko receives a call from O'Brien, who says that another vessel has spotted the ship in ques- tion. From this, Sisko and Kira determine the ship's destination—an M-class asteroid. Dukat isn't there, however, because he was transferred to a shuttle and taken away. With me so far? Okay, now we start this episode. Af- ter returning to the station, Sisko has O'Brien begin searching for the shuttle that left the asteroid with Dukat. Alone in Ops, on the station, far away from the DMZ, without any help from any other vessel, O'Brien reconstructs the flight path of the shuttle that scurried away with Dukat by using its warp trail. Hold it! Wait a minute! If O'Brien can find the shuttle by himself, why did he need the help of other vessels in the previous episode? Perhaps the shuttle had a distinctive trail. # Odo arrests Quark for a short time during this episode for his role in arranging for weapons to be sold to the Maquis. At one point Sisko jokingly suggests that Odo keep Quark in the cell "forever." Odo sure picked the right cell for it. A wide shot at the end of the scene shows that the cell has no button to lower the force field! The force field could be controlled from the guard’s station. # I'm a bit puzzled by the airlocks on the promenade. Are they like giant turbolifts of some kind? Leaving the station, Legate Pam marches into an airlock. Then he turns around and stands as the door rolls shut. It's almost like he expects the room to start moving. Then again, maybe that’s how the Cardassians say good-bye. He could be making sure that no-one is about to attack him before the door closes. # While interrogated by members of the Maquis - supposedly Federation citizens - Dukat wears Cardassian- design handcuffs. (I suppose given Cardassian proclivities, their hand- cuffs would be more sturdy than ours, but still I say, "Buy Federation, use Federation for all your restraining needs!" We're talking jobs here!) He may be able to break Federation style handcuffs. # Trying again to convince Hudson to come back into the Starfleet fold, Sisko takes a bag containing the man's uniform to Volan III. Hudson refuses to repent, pulls a phaser from his pants, and disintegrates the bag and the uniform. So this Hudson guy walks around with a phaser set on disintegrate and stuck it down into his pants. Right. He could have disengaged the safety while pulling it out without anybody noticing. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Friday, July 28, 2000 - 1:08 am: Quark offers to give Sakonna a copy of the Rules of Acquisition, but she is a Female, and isn't it forbidden for Females to know the Rules of Acquisition? Mike Nuss on Sunday, March 06, 2005 - 9:42 am: It probably only applies to female Ferengi. Quark spouts the Rules pretty frequently, so I don't think they care about offworlders knowing.dotter31 on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - 9:59 am: I don't believe that it was ever established that Ferengi women cannot know the Rules. They just cannot use them to run a business or earn profit. (Rule 94: Females and finances don't mix) Quark's mother clearly knows them, and other Ferengi wives probably know them from overhearing or spying on their husbands.Seniram Or from helping their sons learn tham, as Quark's mother did with him. # dotter31 on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 4:47 am: Sisko mentions that they caught the Yridians running weapons to the Bajorans before and in the DS9 Guide Phil mentioned that it was actually the Kressari. Maybe they caught the Yridians doing so to different extremists on a different occasion? (obviously the writers were trying to reference the trilogy that opened the season and messed up, but I don't see why that's not possible, given the volatile Bajoran political landscape) Seniram Either exposure of the Kressari connection prompted the Cardassians to switch to using Yridians, or the Yridians provided assistance for the Kressari. # dotter31 on Sunday, September 03, 2006 - 9:58 pm: Odo accused Quark of selling weapons to terrorists, and he claims to have only 'made some introductions', and nothing more is done about it that we see. Isn't that conspiracy to sell weapons? Quark and the actual salesman advanced a criminal act (the sale of weapons) together- that's conspiracy. Quark should be in jail. Daniel Phillips (Danny21) on Monday, March 29, 2010 - 9:37 am: I assume Quark isn't in prison as he's under Bajorian law, and would they seriously care if he was selling weapons to kill Cardasians. As we don't know the law he's under a lot of things Odo tries to arrest him for might not be illegal.Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Monday, March 29, 2010 - 11:57 pm: I haven't seen the episode in a while but perhaps he cut some kind of deal with them when he was off screen. # Isn't the manufacture and sale of photon torpedoes restricted or monitored? Can anyone who owns a ship buy them? Who missed 200 torpedoes that were given to the Maquis? Seniram Maybe some were built in secret. # John A. Lang (Johnalang) on Monday, January 07, 2008 - 8:36 pm: At the end, Dukat goes back home to Cardassia...not quite a good idea seeing that the Legat said that Dukat would be executed. (Of course, I know Dukat wasn't executed, but still, to go someplace where a death threat lingers is not a good idea) Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 - 12:19 am: Dukat himself said that he still had friends who were in favor with central command, meaning that he knew people and would be able to hide until he could play politics well enough to get back in good standing. Cepstrum on Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 5:59 pm: Just because the legate *said* Dukat would be executed doesn't mean it's true. It probably wasn't, which is why he hoped the Maquis would do it. The legate probably just didn't like Dukat. ''Brian FitzGerald (Brifitz1980) on Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 8:49 pm:''Or it could have been that he figured that they would kill Dukat anyway so he might as well dump all of the blame on him. That way Central Command can claim innocence and put all of the blame on the guy who was just executed by The Maquis. It's certainly not unheard of for politicians to dump all responsibility on some scandal on some underling who can't do much to defend themselves at the time. =Notes= Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine